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NATURAL SELECTION AND QUANTITATIVE GENETICS OF LIFE-HISTORY TRAITS IN WESTERN WOMEN: A TWIN STUDY
Abstract
Whether contemporary human populations are still evolving as a result of natural selection has been hotly debated. For natural selection to cause evolutionary change in a trait, variation in the trait must be correlated with fitness and be genetically heritable and there must be no genetic constraints to evolution. These conditions have rarely been tested in human populations. In this study, data from a large twin cohort were used to assess whether selection will cause a change among women in a contemporary Western population for three life-history traits: age at menarche, age at first reproduction, and age at menopause. We control for temporal variation in fecundity (the "baby boom" phenomenon) and differences between women in educational background and religious affiliation. University-educated women have 35% lower fitness than those with less than seven years education, and Roman Catholic women have about 20% higher fitness than those of other religions. Although these differences were significant, education and religion only accounted for 2% and 1% of variance in fitness, respectively. Using structural equation modeling, we reveal significant genetic influences for all three life-history traits, with heritability estimates of 0.50, 0.23, and 0.45, respectively. However, strong genetic covariation with reproductive fitness could only be demonstrated for age at first reproduction, with much weaker covariation for age at menopause and no significant covariation for age at menarche. Selection may, therefore, lead to the evolution of earlier age at first reproduction in this population. We also estimate substantial heritable variation in fitness itself, with approximately 39% of the variance attributable to additive genetic effects, the remainder consisting of unique environmental effects and small effects from education and religion. We discuss mechanisms that could be maintaining such a high heritability for fitness. Most likely is that selection is now acting on different traits from which it did in pre-industrial human populations.
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“Indeed, all the LH traits studied so far in humans show at least moderate heritability (e.g., Figueredo et al., 2004; Kirk et al., 2001; Pettay et al., 2005; Rodgers et al., 2001).”
From The Adaptive Calibration Model of stress responsivity (2011) · cites this paper as Kirk et al., 2001
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“Previous research posits that some differences in human LHS are due to environ - mental factors (e.g., early life experiences; Belsky et al., 1991 ) and that some differences are genetically influenced (Kirk et al., 2001; Woodley of Menie & Madison, 2015).”
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“We focus on age at first birth, a crucial life history trait, due to its influence on the length of the reproductive career of women and their subsequent fitness (Käär et al., 1996, Kirk et al., 2001, Byars et al., 2010, Stearns et al., 2010).”
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Metadata
- Authors
- Kirk, K. M., Blomberg, S. P., Duffy, D. L., Heath, A. C., Owens, I. P. F., & Martin, N. G.
- Affiliations
- QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute (AU)
- The University of Queensland (AU)
- Washington University in St. Louis (US)
- Venue
- Evolution
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2001-02
- Volume
- 55
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 423-435
- ISSN
- 0014-3820 (ISSN-L)
- 1558-5646
- OpenAlex
- W2168144246
- Cited by
- 245
- References
- 94
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 45 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 11 · 2015: 6 · 2014: 9 · 2013: 13 · 2012: 5
- FWCI
- 11.49
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Evolution (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- BioOne Complete (BioOne) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (AA11998, R01AA007535, AA-07535, AA-07728)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics › Animal Behavior and Reproduction
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Evolution and Genetic Dynamics
- Keywords
- natural selection, human evolution, life-history traits, age at menarche, age at first reproduction, age at menopause, reproductive fitness, heritability, genetic covariance, twin studies, Western women
- MeSH terms
- Age Factors, Australia, Education, Female, Genetics, Population, Humans, Longevity, Menarche, Menopause, Middle Aged, Phenotype, Physical Fitness, Religion, Reproduction, Selection, Genetic, Twins
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